The Adventures of ERotIcA
by spiritx33
Summary: A series of EricNatalia oneshots based off of their interactions in each episode. Chapter Three: Leaving the Evidence Locker Open now up!
1. Author's Note

What I have to say won't fit in the summary box, so I'm taking a whole chapter just for author's notes and whatnot.

The Adventures of ERotIcA is (going to be) a series of oneshots that have to do with Eric/Natalia. (Hence "ERotIcA," the shipper name created at TALKCSI that takes the ER in Eric's name and the IA in Natalia's name and defines the tension between the two of them.) It's kind of hard to explain, but for every episode Eric and Natalia interact in, I'm going to write a oneshot that has something to do with their interaction in that particular episode. (But the oneshots aren't really going to be about the actual interactions in the episodes. It'll be more along the lines of something they do together that was inspired by their conversations, or something they did together that inspired their conversations.)

I'm putting down "general" for genre just because each oneshot is bound to be different in terms of genres, and it only gives me so many genre options to begin with. I'll probably end up having a decent range of genres: romance, angst, tragedy (gasp!), comedy, etc., etc.

I'm going to keep this rated T. However, I'll more than likely have at least one or two oneshots that are… err… _suggestive_. When I add them, I'll make sure to throw up a warning first. (M) will be the warning that I'll put next to the chapter name.

As far as spoilers go, they're probably non-existent. I'll be putting a small excerpt from the Eric/Natalia conversation I'm covering at the beginning of every oneshot… if you want to consider that spoiler-ish.

And if any of you have any ideas or suggestions for a oneshot, as long as it has something to do with their interaction in one of the episodes, feel free to let me know and I'll see what I can do.

I think that's it, so… sit back, relax, and read! (Reviews are nice, too!)


	2. Trust Issues

"_You know, you got some trust issues."  
_"_You're right."  
__- Natalia Boa Vista and Eric Delko  
__Episode 4.05: Three-Way_

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this."

Eric Delko sat in the passenger seat of his own car, watching Natalia Boa Vista drive his baby down the Causeway at eighty miles per hour. She let out a few soft chuckles at him, but he was too nervous to notice them. This was the only car he had and if she were to crash it, that would be it. Money was extremely tight for him because he was currently paying his ill sister's medical bills, and there was no way in hell that he'd be able to afford car repairs, especially since he was on the budget of a county worker. He'd have to start asking for rides to work everyday. …And it would be _Natalia_ providing the transportation.

"You need to stop worrying so much," Natalia said as she swerved around another car and continued to switch from lane to lane without the use of a blinker. She let out a healthy laugh at seeing the sudden look of panic on her coworker's face. She almost felt bad for him, seeing how nervous he was, but Natalia was confident in her driving ability. Not once had she ever had any car problems, nor had she ever gotten a ticket. They'd be fine. "And you need to get over these trust issues and have some faith in me."

"Well, hey, wait a minute… that's not fair. How do you expect me to trust someone I don't know? I _just_ met you," Eric said as his dark brown eyes focused on Natalia, momentarily stopping from alternating back and forth between her and the road. He didn't really have trust issues… He had a right to doubt Ryan because this hadn't been the first time the newest CSI gave his reporter girlfriend details on a case. He also had a good reason to distrust Natalia: he knew nothing about her. Besides her name, age, and occupation, she was a complete stranger to him. So why he had even told Natalia she was right after her accusation, he had no idea.

Maybe it was because he had let her good looks cloud his judgment. She was just flat-out _hot_. All of the other girls he had dated and/or flirted with in the past were hot, too, but unlike those other girls, Natalia was gorgeous. She was real. Makeup wasn't caked on her face, she wasn't showing off her assets dressed in a halter top and a mini-skirt, her voice was more husky as opposed to high-pitched, and she was more sophisticated instead of… trashy. She had an air of confidence and mysteriousness about her, something that Eric found highly intriguing. And on his way out of the DNA lab, where they had first met, he had a clear view of her backside, which was _damn nice_.

Silence fell between the two as Natalia pondered what Eric had just said. After a moment or so, she came to the conclusion that his argument was legitimate. "Fine," she said, giving in. "So you don't know me, I'll give you th—"

Natalia had been in the process of talking when she decided to switch over a lane. Little did she notice until the very last minute that another car was switching over into the same lane, and they were both about to collide.

"Hey, watch it!" Eric yelled as he reached out toward the steering wheel to keep the car in their current lane. However, Natalia had noticed the other car, which had caused her to stop talking in the first place, and used her elbow to block Eric's hand as she tilted the steering wheel away from the lane she had been ready to move into just seconds ago.

Softly laughing again, Natalia glanced over at Eric, whose hands were gripping the dashboard so tightly that his knuckles were white. "Chill, Eric," Natalia said, her voice calm. "I saw it."

Not too long after their almost-accident had Natalia decided to finally exit the Causeway. Not only had she tortured the poor CSI enough, but it was getting late and she had a meeting bright and early in the morning with Monica West, Miami-Dade's District Attorney.

She began to slow down and started using the blinker to switch lanes, carefully looking in the rear-view and side-view mirrors as she went along. As soon as she was in the lane all the way on the right, she took the next exit off of the Causeway. This got a positive reaction from Eric, she noticed, whose tense body was finally beginning to relax.

"See? I told you we'd be okay," Natalia said, smiling over at Eric as they came to a full stop at a red traffic light.

He chuckled and smiled, suddenly embarrassed by his earlier reaction. "Yeah," he said, and then his voice drifted off, not sure what else he could say. He realized that she was also at a loss for words, so, to not make it awkward between the two of them, he quickly thought of something he could say to her.

"Hey," he started. "So I still don't know you very well… Why don't you tell me about yourself?"

"Nothing much to tell," Natalia said, shrugging her shoulders. "My name's Natalia Boa Vista, I'm thirty-five years old, I got a federal grant to work DNA on unsolved cases and remodel the lab…" She shrugged again. "Nothing exciting."

Eric raised an eyebrow at Natalia, who he realized was doing her best to avoid having to tell him about herself. She also hadn't been looking at him… instead, her honey brown eyes were fixed straight ahead, and she suddenly seemed anxious to get back to the lab. It looked like she was the one with the trust issues, but he decided it would be best to not point that out. Instead, he went to ask her another question about herself, but she interrupted before he had a chance to open his mouth.

"Ever heard of _Dora the Explorer_?" she asked as the light turned green and she began to accelerate.

"…What?" _Dora the Explorer_? Where the hell did that come from?

"_Dora the Explorer_," she repeated, then nodded her head forward, signaling him to look ahead.

Directly in front of them was a mini-van with a built-in television. On the screen was, sure enough, _Dora the Explorer_.

Eric had never seen or even heard of the show before. "No," he answered, and then looked back over at her. "What's it about?"

"I'm not quite sure," Natalia said, relaxing once again. "It's some kind of kid show. Educational, but fun." She paused, unsure of what else to say. "My sister sometimes babysits these two kids who are addicted to it. I haven't actually sat down and watched an episode with them, but it looks cute."

"Sure," Eric said, pretending to sound interested at this point. He honestly couldn't care less, but this seemed to be keeping Natalia comfortable, not having to talk about herself, so he went with it.

"That one with the brown hair is Dora," she said, pointing toward the screen. "And that guy right there is—"

_CCCRRRUUUUNNNNNCCCCCHHHHH!_

Natalia's hand fell back onto the steering wheel as she slammed on her break, her and Eric flying forward until their seatbelts caught them. They looked over at one another, their wide eyes locking, as they realized what had just happened.

They had both been so focused on the television that neither realized until it was too late that they were at another red light, where the mini-van in front of them had come to a stop.

---------------------------------------------------------------

**Author's Note:** Tee! This was kind of taken from a true story… A couple of months ago, my mom and I were in a parking lot at a mall and there was a mini-van in front of us that had _Dora the Explorer_ playing on one of those built-in televisions. Luckily, we didn't hit it, but we spent a good five minutes talking about how that was totally a driving distraction.

I also want to defend myself if any of you are thinking that Eric might be a little OOC in this one... This was how I always pictured Eric to be in the past... You know... A major flirt, always checking out the hot girls, etc., etc. I sometimes like to think Natalia changed him... Maybe made him a little more compassionate and whatnot. But... yeah. There's my defense if Eric is coming across as a little OOC.


	3. Leaving the Evidence Locker Open

"_Hey. How you doin?' "  
_"_I, I really… I want to apologize for leaving the evidence locker open."  
- Eric Delko and Natalia Boa Vista  
Episode 4.09: Urban Hellraisers_

Aggravation.

Once again, another cold case was going back into the evidence locker, still labeled as 'cold case.' Natalia Boa Vista had gotten a federal grant at the beginning of the year to work on cold cases, but she had yet to actually crack one. This had to be the fifth or sixth one she was putting back, and each time she had to put one back, the more aggravated she became.

She knew it wasn't her fault that the cases had to go back on the shelf. There just wasn't enough to make a DNA profile. There was nothing she could do about it.

But regardless of whether or not it was her fault, she was still aggravated. Not only because of that, but because of what had happened in the lab earlier today. Being held at gunpoint doesn't exactly make a person chipper and pleasant. No; she was irritated, nervous, and stressed. She wanted nothing more than to go home, throw on her most comfortable pair of pajamas, and go to sleep.

With the Cold Case #3044 envelope in her hand, Natalia traveled from her lab to the evidence locker, almost crashing into one of the janitors on the way. He had been cleaning up the broken glass from earlier and had almost rammed right into her as he turned around to find a garbage can.

"Jesus Christ, watch where you're going," Natalia mumbled under her breath as she approached the evidence locker.

She punched in the code on the keypad that would open the door to the evidence locker and waited for the familiar _beep!_ that signaled to her she was able to go in. Once it sounded, she grabbed onto the handle, turned it, and flung the door open.

After getting into the evidence locker, she headed straight toward the shelf that held the box where she had gotten the envelope from. In the meantime, she had tossed the envelope on the table in the middle of the locker because she needed both hands free in order to get the box down.

When she successfully pulled it down, she headed back to the table and placed the box on it. She quickly skimmed through the contents of the box, looking for the spot where the envelope belonged.

Once she found the envelope's proper place and put it there, she headed back toward the shelf and slid the box back up onto it. As she did so, she heard yet another _beep!_ and looked over her shoulder to see CSI Eric Delko casually walking away from the evidence locker, the door of which was now shut.

She hadn't shut the door coming in.

"Eric…?" she called, stepping away from the shelf and crossing to the door. When she reached the door, she grabbed the handle and went to turn it, but found it locked. She tried it again, just to be sure. Still locked.

"Eric Delko!" she yelled, frustration evident in her voice. "Get back here right now!"

The gorgeous Cuban stopped and turned around. The first thing Natalia noticed was the huge smirk he had on his face, which only put her in a worse mood. Slowly, he started back toward the evidence locker, chuckling as he got closer.

"Open. The. Door," she said through gritted teeth, but the only reaction she got from Eric was laughter.

"I thought you learned your lesson Boa Vista, but I guess I was wrong. Leaving the evidence locker open _again_? _Tsk, tsk, tsk_." He shook his head, clearly enjoying this.

Natalia hadn't realized that she had done so until Eric pointed it out. "I was just going to be two seconds. There was no need to close it," she said, trying to shrug it off.

"Two seconds is enough time for two psychopaths to get in and point a gun at your head."

She wasn't in the mood for Eric's games. "Eric. Get me out of here. NOW."

Eric chuckled, but this time made his way toward the door while Natalia followed him. He punched in the code and began to open the door, as did Natalia, pushing at it with her hands.

Then suddenly, the door slammed shut again.

"ERIC!"

Eric chuckled again and watched as Natalia made attempt after attempt to open the door, eventually trying to use her entire body to overpower Eric. Needless to say, it wasn't working.

Then suddenly, Eric came up with an idea.

The next time Natalia rammed into the door, Eric let go of it and watched as she went flying out of the evidence locker and fell to the ground… taking him down with her. She had grabbed onto his arm in hopes of being able to prevent herself from falling, but that had proved futile. Instead, it caused him to spin around and both of them to fall, landing on the floor next to each other, their legs intertwined.

Eric turned to his right to look at Natalia, who was glaring at him. He laughed, and then got whacked in the arm by her after they both sat up and untangled their legs.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't wipe the smirk off his face. He stood up and then turned toward Natalia, who was still on the floor and still staring daggers at him. He offered her his hand and she eyed it for a second, then opted not to take it and instead got up on her own.

Once she was on her own two feet again, she wiped herself off and then turned around and headed back toward her lab, not once looking at Eric.

When Natalia was completely out of sight, Eric turned around and started toward the break room, where he had originally been going to in the first place. He stopped in his tracks though, when he noticed the small crowd that had gathered to watch what had just happened.

"Get back to work," he said, waving them off, and then resumed his walk to the break room.

---------------------------------------------------------------

**Author's Note:** Sorry it took so long to update. I was just introduced to this thing called life and it's been taking up a lot of my time lately.

Well, I hope you liked this one. It's fun to think about—Eric locking Natalia in the evidence locker and her being all angry at him. Tee!


End file.
